What Do You Need To Know About The Vampire Facelift — More Nonsense or Not?

Introducing Vampire Facelift 

Getting a lot of buzz is a new procedure known as the Vampire Facelift. 

It cannot sculpt the lower face, neck, and jawline as does the standard and venerable face and neck lift as firstly you need to know that a Vampire Facelift is not a bona fide facelift as it is not a surgical procedure. 

Play on words is the catchy title. Not by a vampire but by a surgeon or anaesthesiologist you need to mentally extrapolate from the famous Bela Lugosi as Dracula horror movies to a vision of extraction of blood from your body. 

Because of its name and not because of spectacular results, the VF is getting a lot of media attention. Maybe not even Pennsylvania, it did not originate in Transylvania. Being not sure of where it got started, the essence of the process as understood is: a mixture is prepared using the patient’s own blood, which is injected under the skin ostensibly doing some plumping and filling of the tissue under the skin. Some of the signs of aging will be diminished should the plumping be successful. Being more permanent than the current crop of fillers are the proponents hoping that such self-filling will help. 

Familiar with the basic science as well as the technology of this variety of natural fillers are the Vampire Facelift using platelet-rich plasma as the filler. Very valuable in healing are platelets, very small fragments, and a normal component of blood. When clotting is necessary such as after an injury or surgery, their main function is to promote blood clotting. In blood injured and leaking blood vessels, they literally plug the holes. Stimulating the body to generate healing tissue, platelets are also rich in growth factors and other chemicals and hormones. 

In our face and neck lifting, neck sculpting, and extended neck lifting we use platelet-rich plasma. To improve the nasal airway, we have also used it in rhinoplasty, septoplasty as well as turbinate resection. In favour of less bruising, less swelling, and faster healing is everyone. This comes to be the reason why platelet-rich plasma is employed. 

What Are PRP Treatments? 

Familiar with the non-cosmetic uses of platelet-rich plasma are all surgeons. Platelet-rich plasma has had a long and successful run in the universe of all surgical specialties. Adopting it from those worlds of other surgical specialties that include the chest surgery as the plasma is sprayed over the stitch lines promoting rapid healing and reduce leakage from reunited blood vessels are the reconstructive plastic surgeons and cosmetic surgeons. 

Several ounces of blood are extracted from an available patient vein after the patient is under anesthesia whereas it is observed for facial cosmetic surgery procedures as it is sure in the Vampire Facelift and any other surgery. To concentrate the platelets, the blood is spun down in a centrifuge. That platelet-rich fraction is extracted with the addition of other chemicals and substances. So that this platelet-rich liquid can be spread onto the under the surface of the skin and atop the deep tissues, then a spray is fashioned. Promoting faster welding of the tissues is the PRP. As it has been very successful we are happy to have it in our hands. 

The same type of mixture is used by those performing the vampire lift apparently. Here it comes merely injected under the skin. Thereafter the body takes it from there. The tissues fill out and such plumping mimics the role of the traditional fillers as presumably the new fibrous tissue is generated. 

To support the advantage of this technique and product over the existing and ultra-successful fillers such as Restylane, Juvederm, Radiesse, Sculptra, and Artefill, there hasn’t been any good photographs or scientifically valid studies. 

In this context, is it safe? Stating that they certainly looked into it whereas there is probably much of a problem when it comes to safety is David Bank, MD, president of the New York State Society for Dermatology and Dermatologic Surgery

This is a low-risk undertaking for patients because the product has been used for so long in other spheres as it is agreed that concerning its safety and the possibility of untoward reactions and complications. 

Finally, What Are The Results?

That’s another story when it comes to the results. As cosmetic surgeries and procedures are all about results, it’s a big story. It is not possible to determine if this is worth your while. The jury is still out as the cosmetic facial surgeons need to surely study the results as well as the longevity before pronouncing PRP as a successful and mainstem treatment. We are sure to update you when there are some results either good or bad, faithfully portrayed in technically consistent, medical journal standard before and after photographs.